Life Under Trees

I'm curled in a bright yellow knit hammock, listing gently in the breeze. The dog restlessly paces the yard, whining softly at sounds and smells. Something has caught his attention but, in his old age, he seems to struggle to hear and see it clearly. He lies down on the warm cement just a few feet away and watches me, first intently and then blankly. The tree is green, spreading its branches and leaves overhead like a shelter. The sunlight dances across the very tops of the flowers which span the grey worn fence. It lights the topmost leaves of the tree. The rest have already become a cold green, bowing to early night. The leaves spread across the branches, across the sky. They are most spectacular. So simple. So beautiful. Protective. Like a shawl thrown gently across my shoulders.

Anna Nalick Has It Right

Breathe.  Just breathe.

Little Girl

She is
small to me,
even as she grows and stretches toward the sky,
responding to the sun and rain as a flower moving toward its greatest height.


Her hair
is of spun gold,
which she today tints in the brightness of fuchsia,
the ends spattered with red - the color of life, not death.


Her voice
is nearly imperceptible,
or as big as the sky.
Her mood, her spirit, her energy determining the tone.


She is
at times
the smallest child without direction.
And, without warning, a woman generations in the making, all strength and boldness.


She defies
expectations, boundaries, and me.
She will dance with reason and always take the lead.


She absorbs
the world around her.
This is her nourishment, her sustenance.


She cries
without purpose
her tears sprung from deep inside, as she is sprung from me.


She smiles
with abandon
belying the fear, displaying no hesitancy in her step.


She hurts
easily
from words and bruises alike - the pain equal.


She is
utter perfection,
the universe's greatest work,
and mine.

I Cry

My life moves
as a constant
and in one motion.
There is a rhythm
nearly indistinguishable.
Its match
outside of me
is absent.
The rhythm against which
I measure myself
is silent.
I am alone.
I move without purpose.
Or I stand still.


I want to bury myself
deep inside the earth.
I crave the warm womb
the protection of the mother.
I yearn to be born again - reborn.
I long to feel the heat
of the sun in my bones.
The force of the wind
pummeling my body
and penetrating my soul.


I wish to speak with the moon
when the skies are dark.
To hold her in my arms
and protect her.


I wish to stand tall
high above the world.
To take in life
and gaze upon it
until they can see
and know
that they are loved.


I wish to be the earth
that upon which the world walks.
To open my arms
and hold humanity
in an embrace of absolute love.

I cry.
From a sadness so great
it threatens to explode me
into millions of tiny pieces.
From a love so deep
it cannot be contained.
I cry.

My Last Cover Letter

Someone recently asked me the question, “Karen, what would you like to do next?” My answer was simple. “I’d like to blow the walls off public education, turn it on its ear, and recreate it.” I want to create powerful learning and experiences from K through LIFE, encourage people to step outside their comfort zones to discover the possibilities.

I believe that education is the key to everything, which I realize may sound a bit over the top. Yet I am hard-pressed to find examples of struggles, accidents, injustices, or just plain misses that don’t somehow come back to how people were educated, or not educated. As the parent of a 9-year old, I feel fully the weight of my responsibility to raise this child to be smart, open-minded, fair, compassionate, loving, strong, and to think for herself. This is only one part of the partnership, of the community in place to create such a human being.

Education starts at home. It is either embraced or it is not. Children are taught, or they are not. Once we join hands with education outside the small circle of family, the community has truly begun, and the possibilities are limitless. We as humans can live to be 100, so how can we dare to fit learning into a 13 year block, with a start and a finish. Our abilities to provide for our families, contribute to our communities, fight for change in our countries, and preserve life on our planet are directly tied to our ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn.

And yet education continues to be singled out for reduction and liquidation. It is slaughtered in the name of budget cuts without thought as to the impacts. At the mercy of a tax-based system, it will continue to fail, and we will fail in our responsibility to our communities and our country.

So, yes, I am MOST interested in your organization. I think that your mission is dead on, and I have seen no one else take such an interest in education. It would be an honor to be part of the charge forward.

Because there is much to say, my friends

The reality of leaving a place that has become home and family, not only for my head and heart but for my soul, has descended squarely upon me today. Sometime during the night, it seeped quietly through my skin, and was aborbed deep into my bones and my bloodstream. I succumbed to its presence, knowing that resistance would provide no relief, and I wept. And I have come to understand that this feeling is not yet ready to subside, that I will again weep for such a loss.

And so I sit here in my dining room, the sun shining on the world outside, a gentle breeze blowing my blinds and the chimes on the porch, and I pen what I hope will be an adequate goodbye, knowing full well that there is no such thing.

I walked into the walls of Disney 12 years ago knowing full well that for perhaps the first time in my life I was in the right spot. I knew nothing of the adventure that lay ahead, but the certainty of my place in it was immediate. I had come home, at long last, and after a very long search.

Twelve years, my dear friends. Twelve at the same time unfairly brief and exhaustingly long years. For twelve years, I have:

• Toiled with brave and courageous colleagues
• Battled the dragons of bureaucracy, nearsightedness, and culture
• Danced with the magical concepts of strategy and progress
• Risen to the challenge of those who were unsure
• Stretched the minds and imaginations of brave human beings
• Been humbled by the vastness of possibility
• Succeeded beyond my own imagination
• Failed most humanly
• Held the hands of people who will forever be friends
• Loved openly and without fear
• Found the gift of grace with the help of stars in human form
• Remained true to myself
• Learned more than I ever thought possible

None of this could I have done alone. I believe without hesitation that no one walks into your path without something to be given, received, or learned. To those who challenged me, and who doubted me, I give equal appreciation and loving thanks. For I have grown immeasurably, thanks in equal part to you. To those who love me outright, I can offer no words to express what you have given me, and how I feel for each of you now, today, at this moment, other than how deeply I love you back. I thank you, with every inch of my heart and soul, for making this part of my journey, my life, so powerfully transformational, and so consumed with love.

It was my hope from the earliest of days that I would leave a legacy that would make me and those who knew me proud. I could not have imagined how it would feel today, looking back and knowing that, because of who I am, I made a difference. I am SO proud. I am proud of myself, I am proud of you, I am proud of US. May the fruit of our partnership and friendship live on, and in some way move this company into the future. I have faith that it shall, and hope that you do as well.

I will miss the magic. I will miss the walls of my womb-like office to which all were welcome. I will miss the anger, the sarcasm, and the laughter. I will miss the struggles and the ease of flow. And I will miss you. I will miss you so very, very much.

May life unfold for each of you in the most powerful of ways. And may you be happy, truly happy. I take each of you with me. And though I won't be there in person, I will be close, always close.

Me xoxoxoxoxoxox

Why blog?

A very cool cat recently tweeted the query, why blog? I had to think for a moment about what draws me to this medium. It is the same thing that has drawn me to years of journaling, and what now draws me to things likeTwitter, Facebook, and Blogger. It is my life, and my story. Life is all about stories. Everything we do, buy, give, take, learn, share, or swallow whole has a story. And somewhere in each of us is the the human desire not only to read stories, but to share our own.

Once upon a time, we had only two options. Gather people around you by the campfire, or write a book for most hopeful mass publishing. How far those stories would go, who would be affected by them, who might respond to them on some very personal level, was anyone's guess and we could never know. But that has changed. Time and space unbounded, technology at the ready, the world waiting.....we look for stories. We look for them like we've never looked for them before.

I want to know who lives across the globe, who lives across the country, and who lives the next town over. I want to know what we have in common and how we are different. I want to know what we can learn from each other. And I want to learn now. I want to be part of this world, and not just riding along for a hundred years or so until my quarter is done and the horse stops. I want to live in this world. And to do that, I have to put myself out there. I want to get better, at being a loving mom, friend, teacher, learner, wife, sister and daughter. And to do that, I have to put myself out there. I want to save this world, and the people in it. And to do that, I have to put myself out there.

So I will talk, and share, and ask questions. I will connect to people so that I can find kindred spirits who want the same. I will speak, and speak, and speak. And I will hope that every once in a while a voice will respond in kind, from somewhere heretofore quiet, and a new community will begin.

Who's in?